© Provided by Mediamerge Corporation Photo from Presidential Communications Operations Office Facebook page
Banking on the massive infrastructure build-up promised by the Duterte administration, Eagle Cement Corp. intends to measure up to the potentially exponential demand for cement by building more factories
"Hanggang kailangan pa ng market magtatayo kami. So pinag-aaralan namin ano 'yung ini-import ng market," Eagle Cement President and CEO Paul Ang told reporters in a press briefing in Mandaluyong City on Friday.
Based on those results the company is trying to estimate what needs to be built, Ang said. He did not provide the specific number of new cement factories the company plans to build.
He said that Eagle Cement is now completing a third integrated cement production line, which is expected to be operational by 2018, within the facility in Bulacan and up the production capacity by two million metric tons.
The company is set to begin constructing a fourth integrated production line in Cebu City for the Visayas and Mindanao markets.
"Cebu will break ground by the fourth quarter. Hopefully, before Christmas," Ang said.
For her part, Eagle Cement CFO and Treasurer Monica Ang noted that the company is targeting to sell cement from the Cebu factory by 2019. "We will manufacture cement from Cebu by 2019 and start selling in those areas," she said.
The optimism about the prospects for higher demand hinges on the Build, Build, Build program being pushed by President Rodrigo Duterte's economic managers that entails an ambitious infrastructure spending of P8.4 billion throughout the administration's six-year term, or until 2022.
Paul Ang noted that the Board of Investments is qualifying cement factories for tax incentive under the Investments Priority Plan.
He said that Eagle Cement will enroll the Cebu factory in the tax incentive program, without considering it as a company priority.
"With or without BOI incentive, we will construct the Cebu plant. Pero it’s a bonus kung magbigay ang BOI. We are applying with the BOI also for our Line 3 in Bulacan," he said.
The BOI initiative reinforces the government's commitment to push its P8.4 billion infrastructure spending plan, Ang noted.
"It's a strategic move to encourage cement firms to expand, especially looking at a 47 million metric ton demand by 2025," he said. — VDS, GMA News